Adoption

(from Latin adoptare 'chose for oneself, '), the act of accepting with approval; favourable reception. Everett Rogers (1962: 17) defined the adoption of innovation as "the mental process through which an individual passes from the first hearing about the innovation to final adoption" and outlined five stages in the adoption process: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption. He classified adopters into five categories on the basis of innovativeness: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards (ibid., 19). Tarde (1890) suggested that the adoption of new ideas followed a normal, S-shaped distribution over time. At first, only a few individuals adopt the new idea, then great numbers of individuals accept the innovation, and finally the rate of adoption slackens. This finding was corroborated by Rogers' (1962) study of the diffusion of innovation. Rogers also found out that the actual adoption of an innovation is influenced by cultural values, sometimes in the most bizarre ways as his example shows (Rogers, 1962: 59):

When horses were introduced into the Shoshoni culture, the Indians knew what to do with them. The Shoshonis had previously experience with horses; they had stolen horses from settlers for food. So, when Indians agents gave them horses for transportation, they readily accepted them. But they ate them.